On November 13, the University of Washington’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and Persian and Iranian Studies Program will welcome Professor Touraj Daryaee (UC Irvine) for his lecture “Empire as a Garden: A Late Antique Vision of Iran”. This presentation looks at the physical and ideological boundaries that the Sasanian Empire created for the idea of Iranshahr (Realm of the Iranians). In this late antique construct, inside the empire and protected by walls and rivers, was imagined a garden in which order and beauty flourished. However, the area outside of the walls and the rivers was seen as place of wilderness and disorder. This binary division was at the center of Sasanian ideology, which projected peace and power inside, but danger for its people outside its boundaries.
The Persian and Iranian Studies Program will also hold several Persian Studies Workshops this year, featuring Professor Kenneth Harl (Tulane University), Professors Naghmeh Samini and Farhad Atai (University of Tehran), and UW’s 2013-2014 Roshan Institute Fellow, Jipar Duishembieva. They will discuss subjects ranging from Iranian archaeology to theater and poetry.
